Life in General
by devonneville
Summary: Not exactly a fanfic but anyways...this is the story of a thirteen-year-old girl named Leora. She goes through so much more than any other person could bear, and yet everyone else on earth has also gone through it. The tale of truth, God, inner strength,


Leora hiked her backpack up farther onto her back, sighing as she stepped off the school bus and proceeded down the sidewalk to Number 1306 Peonia St., where she knew her mother would be waiting with a new load of chores for her to do. The sunlight glinted off her golden-brown hair, and she turned her head down so it wouldn't blind her like it had down so many times before. Leora stepped over the low hedge that boredered her house's dying lawn and walked up the front steps onto the concrete porch. She kicked off her shoes on the doormat that read "Welcome" and opened the front door.  
  
Leora dumped her backpack off onto the linolium floor of the entry way, and preceeded into the kitchen. It was small and slightly cramped, with a small table with two chairs around it and a small vase holding a white tulip in the center. Leora was just opening the pantry cupboard when she heard her mother's voice coming from somewhere upstairs.  
  
"Is that you Honey?" called her mother as walked down the stairs.  
  
"Yeah Mom," answered Leora, taking her seat at the small table with an apple in her hand. Thats all they really ever had in their fridge--apples, carrots, non-fat milk, and orange juice. Usually Leora's mother, whose name was Selena, made soup for dinner or threw together an all-organic salad with no dressing for meals, and in the mornings when Leora was going to school her mother would allow her to eat some of the healthy, multi-grain cereal she kept in the cabinet above the stove.  
  
Selena was a bit of a health-freak. She never allowed Leora to eat desserts or pizza or anything good of any kind, because it was unhealthy, and so consequently Leora was, indeed, rather healthy. She remembered the first time she ever ate anything unhealthy...it had been a peppermint candy, and Leora had stolen it from a small glass bowl in her Grandma's retirement center, back before she had died. She had felt extremely sick afterward and had thrown up on the metro bus on the way home.  
  
That was another thing that Leora resented her mother for was the fact that she refused to buy a car, because she said the pollution was unhealthy for the environment (it was) and should be stopped. Therefore, if Leora or Selena ever needed to get somewhere, they had to take the bus.  
  
"I hope you're not eating the carrots! I'm saving them for soup tomorrow!" came Selena's voice again, this time from right outside the kitchen door. She strode into the room and patted Leora on the head as she made her way over the refridgerator herself. Selena was average-height, with blonde hair and light brown eyes--the same color as Leora's. She had high cheekbones and pierced ears, which were sporting small silver studs. She was dressed in khaki shorts and a green t-shirt that said "WALK FOR EARTH 1992" on it. On her feet she wore lime-green foam flip-flops, revealing rather long toes and large feet.  
  
"No, its an apple," mumbled Leora, brandishing the half-eaten apple in front of her.  
  
"Good. Now, after you've finished your homework--"  
  
"I haven't got any," Leora said hastily, putting down her apple. This was a lie. In fact, she had about six pages of math homework but didn't really feel like doing it at the moment.  
  
"How is that possible?" Selena demanded, taking out the orange juice from the fridge and setting it on the counter.  
  
"Well, I dunno, Mrs. Raym didn't really feel like giving us any I guess."  
  
"Hmmm...well, anyways, when you're done with whatever schoolwork you do have, then I need you to bleach the sink--its getting a bit dirty and we're having Sherry over tomorrow for lunch." Selena was now sitting down at the table with a large glass of diluted pulpy orange juice.  
  
"What? Again?"  
  
"You did it two weeks ago, and yes, I want you to do it again. After you clean it, it won't just stay magically clean!"  
  
"Ugh, Mom....it doesn't matter, Sherry's been over to our house a thousand times, she's practically family, does it really matter if our house is clean or not?" Sherry was Selena's best friend and was also in the neighborhood women's bookclub.  
  
"Yes, it does, so do it. I'll be outside if you need anything. You know where the bleach is."  
  
"The hell I do," mumbled Leora sourly, as Selena got up from the table, clutching her orange juice.  
  
"Excuse me?" said Selena turning back to Leora.  
  
"Heck! I said heck." Selena raised one eyebrow and muttered "I hope so," before exiting the house through the back kitchen door. 


End file.
